Being in the Present
It is very hard for many of us to be in the present. One of the reasons I think children laugh more than adults (300 to 15) is because they live in the present and find wonder in it. As adults we are thinking of the past, the future, and very little of the present. If you think of it the present is all we have. The present moment is never intolerable. It is always what happened five minutes ago, or five days ago, or what is coming five minutes from now, or five days from now that makes people despair.
The Law of Life is to live in the present, and this applies to both time and place. Keep your attention to the present moment, and in the place where your body is now.
A woman was visiting a great cathedral in Italy. Just inside the door was a magnificent mosaic extending the width of the building, but not yet completed. It represented the Last Judgment and the number of tiny pieces of different colored marble involved in it staggers the imagination. A man was on his knees working away and the women, who speak Italian, whispered to him, "What a stupendous task you have! I could not even dream of undertaking so much work."
The man replied quietly, "Oh, I know about how much I can do comfortably in one day. So each morning I mark out a certain area, and I don't bother my head thinking outside of that space. Before I know where I am the job will be complete."
If we stay in the present the journey and destination will be that much better.
BE IN THE PRESENT. As the saying goes, "The Past is History, and the Future is a Mystery, and the Present is a Gift."
Jana Ruth
Author of "Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life"
www.janaruth.biz
www.laughandlivehappier.com
www.laughingworld.blogspot.com
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
What Makes Me Laugh?
Disclaimer: This point of view does not necessarily represent the view of Jana Ruth, all the time, just today, Thursday, August 16, 2007.
Serious people make me laugh. And they are everywhere. Like being serious is going to help anyone. Where is it written that says being a adult has to be serious. Why? Since when is too much fun and playing, and laughing, bad for you? Never, is my answer.
As Victor Borge said, "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." Laughter and humor are needed everywhere, especially at work. We, as adults, spend most of our lives at work, and we don't want to be looking at our watches and crying, "Oh no, I have only been here a minute."
We know from surveys that employees don't leave jobs they leave bosses, and workers are not fired because of lack of competence, they are fired because of lack of inability to get along with their co-workers. My guess is that these people, that employees leave, and are fired, are not the friendly, happy, having a good sense of humor people. My guess is that they are the REALLY serious people.
Humor and laughter in the workplace are important. They increase communications, build relationships, and reduce stress. Again, research shows that when people are having fun at work they are much more productive. Somehow serious and fun do not go along.
So what to do with all the serious people? I say laugh with them, and if that doesn't work, laugh at them. As, Bill Crosby, or someone like that, once said, "If you can laugh at them you can live with them." I don't want to live with them, just work with them. I say, "I have to laugh at you, or else I have to kill you." Maybe that's where the term, "Died laughing comes from?"
Jana Ruth
Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
www.janaruth.biz
www.laughandlivehappier.com
www.laughingworld.blogspot.com
Disclaimer: This point of view does not necessarily represent the view of Jana Ruth, all the time, just today, Thursday, August 16, 2007.
Serious people make me laugh. And they are everywhere. Like being serious is going to help anyone. Where is it written that says being a adult has to be serious. Why? Since when is too much fun and playing, and laughing, bad for you? Never, is my answer.
As Victor Borge said, "Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." Laughter and humor are needed everywhere, especially at work. We, as adults, spend most of our lives at work, and we don't want to be looking at our watches and crying, "Oh no, I have only been here a minute."
We know from surveys that employees don't leave jobs they leave bosses, and workers are not fired because of lack of competence, they are fired because of lack of inability to get along with their co-workers. My guess is that these people, that employees leave, and are fired, are not the friendly, happy, having a good sense of humor people. My guess is that they are the REALLY serious people.
Humor and laughter in the workplace are important. They increase communications, build relationships, and reduce stress. Again, research shows that when people are having fun at work they are much more productive. Somehow serious and fun do not go along.
So what to do with all the serious people? I say laugh with them, and if that doesn't work, laugh at them. As, Bill Crosby, or someone like that, once said, "If you can laugh at them you can live with them." I don't want to live with them, just work with them. I say, "I have to laugh at you, or else I have to kill you." Maybe that's where the term, "Died laughing comes from?"
Jana Ruth
Author of Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
www.janaruth.biz
www.laughandlivehappier.com
www.laughingworld.blogspot.com
Friday, August 10, 2007
Women and Men Laugh at Different Things
In 1996, I am watching "The Nutty Professor," the Eddie Murphy version, with my 14 year old son. Morrie, my son, was laughing, and than laughing some more during the dinner table fart scene. He loved it. I, on the other hand, maybe laughed once or twice, and as the scene went on, I started to find the scene very crude. I thought it was just a matter of my son being 14, but when I explained the experience to my brother, age 42, he told me he loved that scene and the entire movie. That was when I really realized that women and men laugh at different things.
The September, issue of "Reader's Digest," Doug Colligan's article, "Why Men and Women Laugh Out Loud: The Secret to Tickling His or Her Funny Bone," confirms this.
"Stanford University psychiatrist Allen L. Reiss, MD, recruited 20
male and female college students. Inside an MRI, the men and
woman looked at 70 cartoons flashed on a small overhead screen
and rated them on a funniness scale. When the results came back,
Reiss made an unexpected discovery: Men and women process funny
differently. The analytical region of women's brains was more
active than the men's, suggesting women studied the cartoons
more. When they found the cartoon amusing, the reward region of
their brains lit up noticeably more than the guys.
All of which is a fancy way of saying women appear to think a little
more about whether they find something humorous. They don't
necessarily expect to laugh and so they enjoy it a lot more when
the joke works for them. With men, apparently it was more like.
Hey.... cartoon. Must be funny. Funny is good."
Regina Barreca, a professor of English literature at University of Connecticut, has been studying women and men and humor for years, and written the following books, among others: "Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful," "Women's Humor," Perfect Husbands (and other fairy tales) Demystifying Marriage, Men, and Romance, " New Perspective on Women and Comedy, " "Last Laughs," and "They Used to Call Me Snow White but I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor." Dr. Barreca suggests that "women bash men for having the sense of humor of a nine-year-old boy, but men strike back, accusing women of having no sense of humor at all. It's a misperception, Barreca says, based on three things. One is that women don't like crude. We don't do eye-poking, head-slamming humor. No woman has gone up to another women and said, 'Pull my finger.' Second, women don't tell jokes. They tell stories. When a woman says, 'I have something funny to tell you,' if you are smart, you'll sit down, because you're going to be there for a long, long time. Third, women don't enjoy humor that makes fun of others' physical shortcomings. If women laugh at anyone, it's at themselves and their quirks."
So, I guess that when it comes to humor, women just are more intelligent. I think that women might be more intelligent in every area.
Once when my son, Morrie, was about three he came into the room I was in, holding himself, and I asked if he needed to go the bathroom, and he said, "No, Mom, I am just thinking." And I got thinking, men must do lots of thinking, because they are constantly touching themselves or adjusting it. Just a thought.
Jana Ruth
Author of "Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
http://www.janaruth.biz/
http://www.laughandlivehappier.com/
http://www.laughingworld.blogspot.com/
In 1996, I am watching "The Nutty Professor," the Eddie Murphy version, with my 14 year old son. Morrie, my son, was laughing, and than laughing some more during the dinner table fart scene. He loved it. I, on the other hand, maybe laughed once or twice, and as the scene went on, I started to find the scene very crude. I thought it was just a matter of my son being 14, but when I explained the experience to my brother, age 42, he told me he loved that scene and the entire movie. That was when I really realized that women and men laugh at different things.
The September, issue of "Reader's Digest," Doug Colligan's article, "Why Men and Women Laugh Out Loud: The Secret to Tickling His or Her Funny Bone," confirms this.
"Stanford University psychiatrist Allen L. Reiss, MD, recruited 20
male and female college students. Inside an MRI, the men and
woman looked at 70 cartoons flashed on a small overhead screen
and rated them on a funniness scale. When the results came back,
Reiss made an unexpected discovery: Men and women process funny
differently. The analytical region of women's brains was more
active than the men's, suggesting women studied the cartoons
more. When they found the cartoon amusing, the reward region of
their brains lit up noticeably more than the guys.
All of which is a fancy way of saying women appear to think a little
more about whether they find something humorous. They don't
necessarily expect to laugh and so they enjoy it a lot more when
the joke works for them. With men, apparently it was more like.
Hey.... cartoon. Must be funny. Funny is good."
Regina Barreca, a professor of English literature at University of Connecticut, has been studying women and men and humor for years, and written the following books, among others: "Too Much of a Good Thing is Wonderful," "Women's Humor," Perfect Husbands (and other fairy tales) Demystifying Marriage, Men, and Romance, " New Perspective on Women and Comedy, " "Last Laughs," and "They Used to Call Me Snow White but I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor." Dr. Barreca suggests that "women bash men for having the sense of humor of a nine-year-old boy, but men strike back, accusing women of having no sense of humor at all. It's a misperception, Barreca says, based on three things. One is that women don't like crude. We don't do eye-poking, head-slamming humor. No woman has gone up to another women and said, 'Pull my finger.' Second, women don't tell jokes. They tell stories. When a woman says, 'I have something funny to tell you,' if you are smart, you'll sit down, because you're going to be there for a long, long time. Third, women don't enjoy humor that makes fun of others' physical shortcomings. If women laugh at anyone, it's at themselves and their quirks."
So, I guess that when it comes to humor, women just are more intelligent. I think that women might be more intelligent in every area.
Once when my son, Morrie, was about three he came into the room I was in, holding himself, and I asked if he needed to go the bathroom, and he said, "No, Mom, I am just thinking." And I got thinking, men must do lots of thinking, because they are constantly touching themselves or adjusting it. Just a thought.
Jana Ruth
Author of "Laugh and Live Happier: P.L.A.Y.S. for Life
http://www.janaruth.biz/
http://www.laughandlivehappier.com/
http://www.laughingworld.blogspot.com/
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